Hospitals and other medical care institutions provide differing levels of patient care so as to conserve resources, minimize the costs of patient care, and maximize patient outcomes (i.e., the condition or health of the patient). To achieve this, the attending staff will transfer a patient between different units in the hospital in accordance with the acuity of the patient's condition. For example, a high-acuity patient may be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) or critical care unit (CCU), then is transferred to an intermediate care unit, and so on to successively less-intensive care environments until the patient is released from the hospital. Such a paradigm of transitional medical care has been precipitated by the increasing costs of providing medical care, and the increasing acuity of the patients that receive such medical care. For example, the average acuity of the patients that are transferred to an intermediate care environment is now higher than in the past. More particularly, a patient that is transferred to an intermediate care unit is now likely to require a more intensive level of continuing care in comparison to the level of care required by such a patient in years past.
For the attending staff to successfully practice such medical care, the patient monitoring applied to each patient must be easily reconfigured according to the patient's condition, acuity, and location. However, the conventional patient monitoring system for a non-ambulatory patient typically employs a fixed, dedicated bedside monitor that is located and dedicated for use in a bedside-monitored environment. The bedside monitor is usually wall-mounted, configured for use at one bed, and hardwired to a particular hospital communications network. Such instruments are expensive, and thus typically are in short supply, and they are not easily reconfigured when the patient transfers between beds, rooms, or environments.
An ambulatory patient may be assigned a telemetry transmitter that is worn by the patient such that telemetry data is transmitted to an array of telemetry antennas and receivers, which are connected to the hospital communications network. The conventional telemetry transmitter is designed to be worn by the patient so that the patient is free to move within the selected environment while still being monitored.
A return communications channel, described as a backchannel, can be useful in providing a communications link from a centrally-located transmitter to an appropriate receiver in the telemetry transmitter that is worn by the patient. However, the cost and complexity of installing and maintaining an effective backchannel communications system can be substantial, especially if the backchannel is intended to reach a telemetry transmitter located anywhere in the hospital. As a result, a hospital may lack a backchannel communications link, or if a backchannel communications link is present, it may be implemented in only a portion of the hospital. The foregoing may thus be seen to limit the versatility and usability of the patient monitoring system, especially in situations where the telemetry transmitter is the only monitoring device applied to the patient. These drawbacks make the conventional backchannel communication system less than effective in some hospitals, and especially so in hospitals that provide transitional care.
Further, while it may be desirable to implement a backchannel receiver in a telemetry transmitter so as to resolve such drawbacks, it is also desirable that such a receiver be implemented without a significant increase in the telemetry transmitter's cost, size, weight, and power usage.